Between September 26 and October 1 the Romanian documentary festival prepares six days of film screenings, meetings with the directors, debates and master classes at the Romanian Peasant Cinema, ARCUB Lipscani Hall and Știrbei Center.

“I think that it is very important to have a documentary festival that is 100% Romanian because there are just a few productions of this kind with low budget or no budget and which deserve to be more visible, to be seen by the public, to be encouraged.” – Adina Popescu, director and member of the preselection committee.

31 films out of more than 100 projects were selected for Docuart Fest. The films are divided in three competitive sections: main section, students and TV documentary. The preselection board was formed by two film critics and one director. The full list of the films that are part of the competition can be found here.

Directors from the whole country, beginners and pros, independents and TV filmmakers gather into the largest space dedicated to the Romanian documentary and will talk to the public about their projects during the Q&A sessions that are scheduled after every film screening.

Besides the competitive section, the 6^th edition of Docuart Fest has a diverse cinematographic schedule. We wanted to find out more about the festival, about the opening film and which are the moments that should not be missed directly from the manager Daniela Apostol:

In 2017 Docuart will take place between September 26 and October 1. What are the highlights and the moments that should not be missed in the entire week?

In the six days of the festival over 50 Romanian documentaries will be screened, 31 in the competition and 27 in the OFF segment. This segment contains more than 10 related events:

• Portrait sketch is an event with four short documentaries signed by the director and professor from Chișinău Vlad Druck.
• At the beginning was the documentary is developed in partnership with the University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” and brings for the first time in the cinema ten documentaries made in their student years by Florin Iepan, Cristian Mungiu, Radu Muntean, Călin Peter Netzer, Ionuț Teianu, Cătălin Mitulescu, Adrian Sitaru and many more. The event will be hosted by professor Laurențiu Damian.
• Focus Copel Moscu brings into the spotlight nine documentaries directed by him (with Otto Urbanski as DOP) from the Sahia Film These films can be seen on Friday, September 29 at the Romanian Peasant Museum Cinema.
• Ferentari Lux is a special film screening at Macaz theatre followed by a debate. “O lună în viața lor” is made by an independent journalist team from Dela0.ro media platform. The film is directed by Mihai Dragolea.
• Protest Preview – the preview of the photo album’s launch brings a visual history of the social movements in the last 10 years in Romania.
• Archivist, the archive documentary section of this year presents Ferdinand I and his reign in several époque documentaries. The event will take place on September 27 at ARCUB Lipscani, starting at 8:00 PM. It will be hosted by Alin Ciupală.
• From photo to video includes several documentaries focused on old photos and different techniques to include them in films. The documentaries are signed by Titus Mesaros (Scrisoare din Orașul Nou and Craiova văzută din car), Eliza Zdru (The Manakia Brothers: Diary of a Long Look Back) and Romulus Balasz (Souvenirs de Iași)
• On September 29 and 30 and October 1 three master classes will take place at the Romanian Peasant Cinema and Știrbei Center with: Dan Curean who will present the way of representing the reality, Cristian Tudor Popescu who will talk about the documentary fiction of the horror, and Vlad Druck who focuses on the influence of the semiotic “of the 6 Arts” on the language and structure of the “7th Art” – documentary cinema (timetable here).
• On the last day of the festival (Sunday, October 1^st) starting at 2:00 PM The Documentary School from Docuart Academy will be released

What the audience should know about the opening film Secondo Me (dir. Pavel Cuzuioc)?

Pavel Cuzuioc is a director of documentary and fiction films from Chișinău who was Haneke’s student. The premiere of the documentary Secondo Me took place last year at the Locarno Film Festival. We are expecting the public on Tuesday, September 26 at Romanian Peasant Museum Cinema starting at 7:00 PM. The participation is allowed based on the online registration.  

The film follows the day-by-day lives of three dressers which work in three European operas: Vienna State Opera, La Scala Opera Theatre Milan and Odessa National Academic Opera. The documentary focuses on the staff that seems insignificant but have life stories full of essence, leaving the opera’s activity and the actions that take place on the famous stages in a secondary plan.

The event is organized by Docuart Association and aims to support and refresh the production of the Romanian documentaries and also to promote these productions among the audience.

This year the festival will take place between September 26 and October 1. The entrance is free at all the screenings and the events. Read more about the festival and the schedule on its website.

Romina Banu

Photographer and editor; she co-founded Dissolved Magazine together with Melissa. For Films in Frame she gathers film and TV series recommendations for lazy weekends and she writes about interesting projects from the film industry. Other than that, she likes traveling, chilling with her cats and sleeping.